Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own athttp://download.archiveofourown.org/works/3697334.

Rating: MatureArchive Warning: No Archive Warnings ApplyCategory: F/FFandom: Orphan Black (TV), Xena: Warrior PrincessRelationship: Delphine Cormier/Cosima Niehaus, Gabrielle/XenaCharacter: Cosima Niehaus, Delphine Cormier, Xena, Gabrielle (Xena)Additional Tags: what the hell did I just write, time travel au, Crossover, Xena AU,

some fighting but nothing graphicStats: Published: 2015-04-06 Completed: 2015-06-05 Chapters: 8/8 Words:

11279

A Matter of Time

by otp324B21

Summary

Delphine walks in on Cosima building a strange device in the lab. An error in the code, ormaybe in the construction, lands our favorite pair back in the past where they meet somedo-gooders that will help them find their way. There is a season 3 spoiler regardingcophine so this is the warning.

Notes

This is going to be a fic around 15-20k. It mixes 2 kind of hard-core fandoms so I hopeyou guys enjoy it.

Don't Hit the Red Button

Delphine huffed as she pushed open the lab door, her arms full of packages. They had come to heroffice for some reason instead of going to the lab due to their questionable contents and she wasbeginning to wonder if the brunette scientist was doing it on purpose. "Cosima? Are you inhere?"

"Would I be anywhere else?" Cosima appeared from under one of the lab counters, removing hergloves that were covered in some black substance. "I'm a prisoner here, remember? You can putthose on the counter." Removing her safety goggles, she stripped out of her lab coat, tossing bothon the counter before picking up one of the packages. "Did you need something else?" Her voicewas cold, her eyes refusing to come up as she unwrapped the packaging.

Delphine sighed softly. She had been putting up with this for several days now. She knew that thebreakup had been necessary. Anger was just another thing she would have to put up since shewasn't able to explain everything. She wanted to...god she wanted to explain so bad. She missedeverything about the brunette who only greeted her with anger now. "I would like to know whatyou're doing."

Cosima rolled her eyes from behind her thick framed glasses. She took a seat on one of the rollingchairs and slid over to another table where Scott was dutifully being silent. "Don't worry about usscientists down here. Scott and I are just doing science type things. Just go back to your office. Iwouldn't want to bother you." She watched as Scott soldered the disc in place on a large circuitboard, several wires coming out to dome. "I mean...you do have a job to do, don't you? Up inyour ivory tower?" Her eyes finally came up to look at the blonde, a coldness framed by perfectlywinged eyeliner.

"Cosima." Delphine's hands came up to her hips, her eyes going between Cosima, Scott, and thedevice. "Part of my job is making sure that corporate funds are going to corporate projects thathave been approved and documented." She gestured to the bubble. "I do not recall...whatever thisis... in your project guidelines."

"Really, Delphine?" Cosima handed the second object to Scott, a tube of odd looking liquid. "Didyou even look over my proposal?"

"Of course I did!"

"Then you would know exactly what this is." Cosima said matter-of-factly.

Delphine paused, her mind going over Cosima's latest theory and proposal. So maybe she hadskimmed it, just looking for flaws. She had been busy at the time, having to deal with a meetingwith Marion fast approaching that day. She didn't recall the schematics for whatever it was thatthey were building. She recalled a requisition request for...Merde. "Cosima...tell me you are notbuilding a matter accelerator here in your lab."

"I told you I needed one. I don't have years to sit around monitoring the results." Cosima flippedthrough her notebook, looking over the device.

"Cosima..." Delphine sighed softly.

Scott suddenly stood up. "It's ready to roll, Cosima. I um...I'm going to go get a drink." He lookednervously between them. "You guys...talk. We can test it when I get back."

Delphine looked over the device. It was crudely put together with what looked like a mix of mail-order parts and salvaged remnants. "I assumed you would realize we have an engineering teamthat could assemble one properly to your specifications." She gestured to the machine. "Thiscannot be safe. I doubt it will even work."

"Why? Because it wasn't created by your beloved engineers? Well you know what they say aboutpeople who assume." Cosima gathered a petri dish, placing it on the flat surface under the dome."It's going to work, and I can prove it." Leaning over the keyboard attached to the device, shetyped in a sequence of settings. Getting no error messages she was about to head to the activationpanel when she was bodily blocked by a taller, delicious-smelling form. "Delphine...get out of myway."

"Non." Delphine stood her ground. "You are not turning that device on in my building."

"It may be your building but it's my lab. Get out of my way!" Cosima pushed her body against thetaller form, trying to stand her own ground.

Delphine rose her eyebrows. "Are you seriously doing this?" She stepped back to put some spacebetween them. As if she had been waiting for exactly that moment, Cosima's hand surged towardsthe activation switch. Delphine tried to stop it, wrapping her fingers around the beaded wrist justas it came down on the switch. "Cosima!" She yelled as there was a bright flash.

Twenty minutes later, Scott walked into the lab. There was no sign of either Delphine or Cosimabut he saw the screen blinking. "That's strange." Taking a seat on the vacant chair, he pulled upthe log. "Man, Cosima, you put the sequence in backwards. God knows what would happen ifyou fired it." He shook his head and cleared the cache, typing in the proper sequence.

504 BC

"Look I'm not saying that I'm ungrateful." The tall blonde dressed in pink lace chased after twoother women. "I'm totally thankful, like seriously, but come on...someone has to re-build thosetemples."

"That's why you have followers." The taller of the two women commented, her hand holding thereigns of a large tan horse as they navigated between the trees. "Go do some magic whatever andyou've got a hundred sorry saps hauling stones and picking flowers."

"Look, babes. I can just go around zapping mortals..."

"You do it to us all the time." The shorter blonde comment off-handedly, leaning on a staff thatwas longer than she was tall. "Just last week you..."

"Shhhh." The tall brunette waived her hand, silencing the two. "There's someone up ahead." Shepulled her sword out as they came to a clearing. What they found was surprising to everyone.

A small brunette woman sat on a large rock, her chin in her hand as she poked at the ground witha long stick. In front of her a taller blonde woman was pacing back and forth. Her hands werecrossed over her chest as she paced, words spewing from her mouth angrily in a language theydidn't understand. The smaller of the two women seemed completely disinterested or just didn'tunderstand either.

"What is she saying?"

The tall brunette shrugged. "Hades if I know. It's not a language I understand."

The tall blonde in pink squealed. "Far out! No way!" Apparently she had forgotten she wassupposed to be quiet because her squeal got the attention of the two women and the two jumped,the angry woman quickly standing in front of the brunette that was slipping off the rock. "Oh yougirls are way out of your loop." She laughed.

"Do you know who they are?" The staved woman leaned towards the tall blonde, seeing the twowomen gain looks of confusion as they turned to each other, speaking in words she didn'tunderstand. "What language are they speaking?"

She grinned. "Oh this is going to be fun." She snapped her fingers and the two strangers weresuddenly hit with a puff of pink sparks, both jumping and trying to shake off the bursts of light."Relax baby girls. I just figured we'd need some communication here, cause no one likessubtitles." At the short blonde's confused look she waved her hand. "Nevermind, you won'tunderstand."

"Who are you?" The short blonde asked the two women, this time understanding dawning ontheir features.

"I'm Delphine. This is Cosima. Please, we have no idea where we are."

Seeing this was more her type of conversation than her travel companion's, the short blondestepped forward, noting the small twitch from her own brunette traveling companion. "Wellmaybe we can help you. I'm Gabrielle. This is Aphrodite." She pointed to the tall blonde whowaved gleefully. "And this.." She pointed to her companion, "is Xena."

Emmisaries of...Love?

Chapter Notes

Haha so yeah it's a Xena crossover. This is meant to be pure campy fun.

"Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit." Cosima was pacing how, her ankle-high boots crunchingon the leaves littering the ground. "Delphine, what the fuck." Her hands were flying through theair. "This is not logically possible. How in the world could a matter accelerator open a tear in timeand space?" Her mind was reeling even faster than her hands, trying to go over the equation. "Weare so fucked."

Delphine was sitting on the rock, her head between her hands. "I told you not to activate themachine."

"So they're from 2500 years in the future?" Gabrielle addressed her warrior counterpart, the two ofthem standing away from the arguing two. "That is amazing."

"Yeah...amazing." Xena gave the unknown pair an odd look, watching the pacing one waving adevice around.

Cosima had pulled her cell phone from her pocket, walking around with it. "Maybe we should trycalling Scott."

"You're not going to get a signal..." Delphine gave her an uncertain look. "Cell towers have notbeen invented yet."

"Time travel hasn't been invented yet!" Cosima snapped back, getting frustrated and turning thedevice off before slipping it into her pocket again. "What the hell are we supposed to do,Delphine? There's no way we can build a matter accelerator without a computer or electricity."

"Xena we have to help them." Gabrielle gave the warrior a pointed look. "We can't just leavethem stranded here. You know maybe we should head back to the Amazons. When I was goingthrough their archives, I found a story about a time traveler."

"Gabrielle..." Xena gave her an exasperated look. "We are not going all the way back to theAmazons. We should just escort them to the next town and let them figure things out themselves."

Her hands going to her hips, Gabrielle stepped in-front of the warrior. "Xena. We can't do that tothem. They don't have any money. They don't have any weapons and more than likely wouldn'tknow what to do with them. We can't just drop them off somewhere."

A burst of pink and Aphrodite appeared again. "Ok where are my girls?"

"Your girls?" Gabrielle perked up at that. "You mean they're..."

"Oh big time." Aphrodite grinned. "They're kinda fighting right now, but total soul-mate actiongoing on right now. That's the only reason I can tap into their energy. They're total beacons oflove in the future."

"Stop saying you told me so!" Cosima yelled as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well I did tell you so!" Delphine was standing now, using her height to tower over the brunette.

"Oh yeah. I can see it now." Xena commented sarcastically. "So what did you find out?"

Aphrodite was watching the two futuristic visitors with a grin. "Oh. Yeah so I talked to the Fatesand they totally agree having them in the past is like super bad, so they can help get them back totheir time, but they're going to need a few things."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Xena tapped her foot. "And what epic quest are we going to besent on now?"

"Oh I can totally get most of the items." Aphrodite gave them a reassuring look. "I mean, it's theleast I can do for my future emmisaries."

"Most?" Gabrielle crossed her own arms, obviously having been in this situation before.

The goddess laughed. "Well...there's just one thing I can't retrieve." She smiled brightly. "Andthat's the Mirror of Iaso. Stealing the property of other goddesses, not cool. You guys are going tohave to get it."

Xena pinched the bridge of her nose. "And where is this mirror?"

"Oropos." Aphrodite answered quickly.

"Oropos!" Xena threw her hands in the air. "That's on the other side of Greece! Do you knowhow long that will take? They don't even have travel gear!"

"What's going on?" Cosima approached, Delphine not far behind.

"I was explaining to my over-aggressive mortal friends here that I got you guys a ticket home butsomeone forgot to eat this morning or something." Aphrodite shook her head. "Before someonestarted screaming about distance I was going to say I could get you gals a ticket on the loveexpress as close as Athens but someone started getting butt hurt."

"What does that even mean?" Xena growled.

"Xena, stop yelling at the goddess." Gabrielle said between her teeth, patting the leather surface ofthe taller woman's stomach. "Aphrodite, a ride would be fantastic."

"What sort of ride is this love express?" Delphine gave them a questioning look.

"This!" Aphrodite commented as she snapped her fingers.

In a flash of pink, the world seemed to fall away from them and both Cosima and Delphinereached for each other just as the world appeared again. "I'm going to be sick." Cosima winced asshe stumbled slightly, falling into Delphine's arms, suddenly being racked with coughs.

"Cosima!" Delphine pulled a tissue out of her own pocked, having grown used to carrying themeven after they broke up.

"Is she ok?" Gabrielle gave them an empathetic look, reaching for her water-skin. "Does she needsome water?"

Grimacing at the blood in the tissue, Cosima accepted the water, giving the skin a questioninglook before taking a mouthful, swishing the blood out of her mouth and spitting it out. "Ugh...this

look before taking a mouthful, swishing the blood out of her mouth and spitting it out. "Ugh...thiswater tastes like moss." She winced and took a sip that she swallowed. "Thank you."

"Are you sick?" Concern was all over Gabrielle's face.

Cosima laughed it off, tucking the tissue into her pocket, giving Delphine a reassuring pat on thearm. "Yeah, but it's ok. I'm working on getting it cured."

"Sorry about that. I should have warned you it's a little unsettling the first time." Aphrodite gavethem a sympathetic look, a smile suddenly lighting up her face as she snapped her fingers.Suddenly a white horse stood there, it's sides packed with supplies. "A gift. Leukos should makethe trip a little easier. And..." With a glance at their shoes, she laughed and snapped her fingers,nodding when they were replaced with boots that were more suitable for walking. She looked atDelphine who was looking over the horse with an unknown look on her face. "Take care of her,ok champ?"

Delphine rose her eyebrows as the woman disappeared. "Are you ok?" She asked softly toCosima who was leaning against the horse, an exhausted look on her face.

"Yeah." Cosima sighed softly. "Just...long day, ya know." She looked at the blonde who waswatching her closely. "Sorry for this. I kinda fucked up bad."

With a soft smile, Delphine reached out, pushing one of the brunette dreads back over hershoulder. "It's ok. You didn't know this was going to happen. We're both in a hurry to get youcured. I can't...it's difficult watching you suffer." She sighed softly.

"You two ready to head out?" Xena held Argo's reigns in her hands. "We've got about four daysworth of travel ahead of us." She looked the pair up and down. "Maybe five." She commentedbefore leading the way, not waiting for a response.

Gabrielle laughed nervously, scratching her neck. "She's really nice. A real sweetheart. She'llwarm up to you." She smiled before turning to follow the warrior. "Hey Xena, wait up."

Grabbing the horse's reigns, Delphine smiled at Cosima. "We'll be home soon enough, and we'llbe fighting in the lab again soon." As they began to walk, she looked down as a hand slipped intoher own, looking up at the brunette with a questioning look.

Cosima gave her a challenging look, daring her to object.

Delphine just smiled.

We Can Work it Out

"Ow...ow ow ow." Cosima limped over to the fallen tree and fell onto it beside Delphine. "I feellike we walked like a thousand miles today." Trying to pull off one of the boots, she accidentallybumped into the French woman. "Sorry."

Delphine gave her a grim smile. "It's ok." She watched as the brunette struggled with the laces,her tongue peaking out between her lips in concentration. "Here, let me." She sunk to the groundin front of her, shooing away the frustrated fingertips. "How are your lungs feeling? It was a lot ofactivity today."

"I'm fine." Cosima grunted as the boots were removed, revealing several blisters. "Ugh thissucks."

"You should ride tomorrow."

Both women looked up to see the short blonde standing over them with a handful of what lookedlike sticks, watching them. "Yeah...sure...let's totally hop on the magical horse that appeared out ofthin air carrying...stuff." Cosima winced as Delphine probed at her foot.

"The horse isn't magic. His appearing was. He's just a normal horse." Gabrielle dumped the stackof dried sticks on the ground. "Ok...so...do either of you know how to start a fire?"

Cosima looked at Delphine who looked back at her. "Um...we can figure it out. I've been toplenty bonfires when I was a kid." She slumped down to the ground, pulling over the sticks.

Delphine did her best to help but she was never an outdoors person. Even growing up they'd hada gas fireplace and the one time she went camping was when she was a teenager and her friendshad rented a cabin.

When Cosima was done building the small tee-pee of sticks, she dusted off her hands. "Ok." Shelooked around, digging through some of the bags. "So...do you see any matches anywhere?"

"Matches to what?" Gabrielle knelt next to the fire, inspecting it before nodding in approval.

"Matches...to light the fire." Cosima sighed softly. She wrinkled her nose, thinking about it. "Or alighter?"

Her confused look increased. "Lighter than what?" Gabrielle's brow scrunched as she scratchedher jaw.

"Cosima...here." Delphine held out a lighter to the brunette.

Reaching out to grab it, Cosima stopped, her hand hovering in mid-air as her head tilted and hereyes narrowed. "Why do you have a lighter?"

Not daring to look up, Delphine shook her head. "Just take the lighter Cosima."

Snatching the small plastic lighter, Cosima gave her a confused look. "No no no. Did you startsmoking again?" She pinned the woman with a look, not believing what she was hearing. "I can'tbelieve you started smoking."

Delphine rolled her eyes, not really wanting to argue, especially in front of strangers. "Shit.Cosima, I don't ask you about your smoking when you shouldn't considering your degrading

respiratory state, I would appreciate the same respect."

There was a small silence between them all.

"Ok, so I'm going to just get Xena to light the fire." Gabrielle moved to take a step back,completely uncomfortable in the situation.

"I've got it." Cosima sighed heavily, flicking the lighter a few times before getting the flame going."Here." She blindly tossed the lighter back at Delphine.

"Wait." Gabrielle knelt down, looking at the fire, holding a hand out. "How did you do that?" Shecast a suspicious look at them. "Do you have powers? Like Aphrodite?"

"Whoa...no. No powers. It's not magic, just basic science." Cosima held her hand out to Delphineagain who dropped the lighter in her hand and she held it up. "See, it's just two flint stonesrubbing against each other to create a spark, and there's like a flammable gas in the tube here." Shepointed out the parts. "So it's like a fire-starter in your pocket." She handed it over to Gabrielle,watching as the woman fumbled with it a few times before getting the hang of flicking a flame."But you don't want to waste it cause it will eventually run out of the gas."

Gabrielle handed it back over. "That's really amazing." She began rolling out her and Xena'sbedrolls, setting it up to the warrior's standards. "So, does everyone carry around these pocket firestarters in your time?"

"Well..."

"We really shouldn't tell you too much about the future." Delphine interrupted the short brunette,getting a glare in response. "The last thing we would want to do is change history."

"Or Delphine doesn't want to tell you that no, only people who smoke tobacco carry them aroundwith them and she supposedly quit weeks ago and is suddenly smoking again." Cosima added,giving the doctor a pointed look.

"Cosima..." Delphine gave her a pleading look of her own. "Do you really want to talk about thisnow?"

Cosima rolled her eyes, tugging over the rolled up blankets that had been strapped to their horse."No, why should we? It might be too dangerous. Maybe you've decided that keeping that secretwas better for me as well. I mean you are the one that makes all the decisions these days aboutwhat is or isn't safe for me."

"Wow you guys argue a lot." Gabrielle pushed herself up to a standing position. "I'm gonna gohelp Xena catch dinner. You guys should probably work this out or it's going to be a really longfew days for all of us." She shook her head and walked off.

"Really, Cosima?" Delphine shook her head as she moved out of the way of the brunette who wasrolling out the blankets, physically pushing her out of the way. "Why are you being this way?"

Cosima rolled her eyes for what seemed like the millionth time. "Really?" She huffed loudly. "It'shard enough being stuck in the past with you, knowing you don't want us to be a thing, but I don'tneed to be reminded about everything that's going on that you're not telling me about."

Delphine sighed softly. She knew there were things she couldn't discuss with the brunette andshe'd been distancing herself on purpose. She flew back and forth to Europe and stayed out of thelab as often as possible. The truth was, just seeing the brunette set a longing in her that she barelyhad enough strength to turn away from. "I've explained this to you before, Cosima. I don't want

this, it's just what needs to happen." She shook her head. "I love you. You are everything to me,but there are things I have to do that I cannot tell you about. There are things I need to do that...I'mso ashamed I can't even look you in the eye after doing it." She didn't dare look at the woman'sface, having noticed she had stopped moving. "I love you, Cosima. I never stopped, but I need toput your survival over our relationship."

Blowing out a long breath, Cosima pulled the other roll over, thinking only for a minute beforerolling it out beside the other, overlapping the sides so it created one large space. "Well, I'mmaking the decisions now and I'm not sleeping alone in this god forsaken place so you are stuckwith me."

Clearing her throat, Delphine smiled. "Ok."

"And you know what?" Cosima pushed herself to her knees, crawling closer to the woman. "It'sjust you, me, and a couple of weird fighter women, so I'm taking advantage of this." Shewhispered right before she pulled the blonde down to her, their lips meeting in a hungry kiss.When the blonde didn't pull away, she pressed closer, her hand tangling in blonde hair, not used tothe slick straightness of it slipping through her fingers. When she finally broke off the kiss, sheleaned her forehead against Delphine's, looking into hazel eyes that were looking into her own,catching the smile on the woman's face as a hand cupped face. "I missed this."

"Me too." Delphine responded, bumping her nose against the brunette's. "I missed you."

"Good." Cosima smiled, brushing her lips against the blonde's once more.

A New Day

Chapter Notes

Thanks to those who are reading. I appreciate all comments and reviews.

Several thoughts came to Delphine at once. One was that she was wearing all of her clothes. Shenormally slept in just a t-shirt these days and it was strange to feel herself completely bound byclothes. She noticed that her back was killing her and it felt as though she had slept on a rock. Shecould hear birds and she wondered if she had left a window open somewhere. The last thing shefocused on was the warm form she was tangled with, their legs intertwined under the blanket andthe hand that had worked it's way under her clothes, covering a breast. She could smell sweat andthe familiar shampoo and she refused to open her eyes, fearing it was a dream.

"I had the weirdest dream." Came a sleepy mumble against her collarbone before the shorter bodybegan to stretch, arching against her as she moaned. Suddenly she froze for a long moment beforeher hand shot out from under Delphine's clothes and she sat up. "Holy watershed it wasn't adream."

Finally Delphine opened her eyes and just laid there for a minute, looking up at the canopy oftrees, her brows furrowing. "Shit."

Cosima's head whipped around unexpectedly. "When did you start saying 'shit'?" She paused, aconfused look coming over her face. "Come to think of it, I haven't heard you speak a single wordof French since we met up with those two."

"Shit." Delphine tested out, looking at the brunette.

"Wait...are you trying to speak in French?" Cosima laughed. "Say something else."

Biting her bottom lip, Delphine smiled, reaching out to caress her cheek. "I live on love and freshwater."

Cosima's brows furrowed. "Ok, that so wasn't French." She tilted her head "I wonder if it has todo with whatever that translation thing that blonde goddess chick did. What the heck were youtrying to say?"

Shaking her head, Delphine pulled her down, brushing her lips against Cosima's. It was somethingshe missed the past weeks, feeling the brunette's arm wrap around her neck, the shorter formpressing against her.

"Great. First we can't get them to stop arguing, now we're going to have to tear them apart to getthe day started." The gruff warrior interrupted them, tossing a bucket of water on the embersremaining from the fire.

"Xena!" Gabrielle sighed softly as the warrior stomped away to saddle the horses. She laughednervously, smiling at the now blushing women. "Um, you should probably get up. We're going tobe leaving soon." She pointed behind her. "The river is that way if you want to wash up a little."

Cosima nodded, clearing her throat. "Yeah ok."

Delphine sighed heavily, looking up at the trees again. "The river...I would love to have a hotshower."

"You and me both." Cosima rooted around the bags and found some clothes, a white billowy shirtand some black leather pants that were way too log for her. "Wicked...it's like ren fair stuff. You'regoing to look so hot in this." She handed the clothes to Delphine before rooting deeper, finding askirt that was more her size and top that was closer to what their blonde warrior friend waswearing, just a little longer and a dark red color. "Dude...this goddess chick has great taste inclothes." She found a smaller pouch in the bag and pulled out a tiny brush that looked very similarto a tooth brush. "Wow...so I'm guessing this is some sort of gift from the goddess because I'mpretty sure toothbrushes weren't invented till like the 19th century." She laughed. "This is soridiculous."

"What is ridiculous is that we are having a conversation about goddesses. giving us dental hygienetools." Delphine grunted as she stood up, her hands full of the gear Cosima had handed her."Don't suppose there's a towel in one of those bags?" She was hit in the face with the thin sheet ofmaterial and winced. "Thanks, brat."

Cosima laughed as she stood with her own armful of supplies.

Bathing in a river was...interesting to say the least. The water only came up to Delphine's waistand to say it was cold was an understatement. One would think that being in a frigid stream out inthe open would be less than arousing, but when the brunette moved against her, hugging her closein an attempt to stay warm, she felt herself beginning to warm from the inside. "Cosima..." Shespoke in a warning tone, knowing that they didn't have time for anything more than just gettingready and wasn't in a hurry to anger their warrior companions.

"It's sooooo c-c-cold." Cosima burrowed closer, her arms wrapped around Delphine's torso in acrushing embrace.

"Then get clean quickly." Delphine laughed, lifting the small towel she had been using as awashcloth before the woman interrupted her. When the woman pulled away she grimaced at theloss of heat. She looked around to make sure they were alone before daring to dip down into theflowing water, rinsing the travel dust from her hair.

Cosima was quick to wash up, wiping away the dirt and grime that had built up from walking on adirt road and sleeping next to a fire. She regretfully wiped away the eyeliner she knew she'd haveto live without until they got home. When the blonde resurfaced, she grinned at the wet hair thatbegan to curl almost instantly. She couldn't help but cheer internally, glad to be rid of Delphine'ssymbolically straight locks. She chuckled before pushing out of the water, quickly drying herselfwith the rough piece of what seemed like linen.

Delphine tried not to watch the brunette as she dressed, noticing she was ignoring the still wetunderwear she'd just washed in the river and was sliding on the skirt, fastening the artisticallydecorated leather belt. She bit her bottom lip, shaking her head before pushing herself out of theriver and drying herself off. She was careful to dry herself off completely before slipping into theleather pants, not wanting to risk any kind of chafing she'd experienced once before when she'dworn leather pants. They fit her perfectly and she wondered not for the first time how much thegoddess knew about them. The shirt was light and airy, just a tad transparent and verycomfortable.

"Sexy." Cosima commented, her fingers tugging at the front strings of her corset top but watchingDelphine dress. "You are looking very enticing, Dr. Cormier."

A smirk worked it's way across Delphine's face as she stepped up to the brunette, pushing away

her hands and helping her lace up the front. "Are you really not going to wear your underwear?You're wearing a skirt."

Cosima laughed. "Only for right now. I really don't want to wear wet underwear. I'm just waitingfor it to dry." She laughed, looking down as Delphine tucked the end of the tightened laces in hertop. With a grin she wrapped her fingers in the white material of the blonde's shirt. "Why...do youfind it distracting?"

Unable to stop herself, Delphine leaned down, capturing Cosima's lips in a kiss. She wrapped herarm around the blonde's waist, pulling their bodies together as the arm slipped around her neck.

"Hera's left tit. Let's go people!"

"Xena!"

What's Under There?

"Ayiyiyiyiyiyi!"

Cosima stood wide eyed as she dropped down off the horse, watching the tall warrior do a rollingsomersault off her horse and into a group of men dressed in dirty leather, brandishing swords anda mishmash of other weapons. "Um...should we... "

Delphine pulled Cosima back, not wanting her anywhere near the fight.

"Hey." Cosima protested.

"You two stay here. Try to keep out of the way." Gabrielle ran into the mix, her staff coming upto protect Xena's back from a swinging mace. "Yah!" She yelled as she rammed the tip of her staffinto his nose, causing a spray of blood as he fell to his knees, crying out.

"Holy watershed." Cosima's eyes doubled as she watched the two women fighting off what had tobe ten men. She winced as Xena's sword went through the leg of one of the men and a gut-wrenching scream filled the air.

"Shut up." Xena slammed the pommel of her sword against the man's temple, knocking him out.When he crumpled to the ground she turned and started fighting another.

"I..." Cosima turned away from them, not able to watch the carnage that was going on. "I can'twatch this anymore." She buried her face in Delphine's chest, her fingers clenching the white shirt.

Delphine watched in horror as the two women dispatched the rest of the men, some just knockedout by the end of a staff, but a few of them...she didn't even want to think about it. There werebodies on the ground not moving and both women seemed proud of themselves. What was morefrightening was Xena's laugh as she cleaned her sword off on one of the fallen men's tunics,sheathing it before wrapping an arm around the short blonde, pressing a kiss to her temple. "It'sover, mon amour."

Cosima pulled away, sniffling slightly and clearing her throat. "Ugh, I don't know if I can dealwith this much longer."

"I know." Delphine pressed a kiss to her temple, not unlike Xena had done. "You know we'rebetter off with them They can obviously protect us. It'll just be a few more days."

"What's with you two?" Xena asked as she lead her horse over to them. She easily got into thesaddle, facing the tan colored horse towards them as she waited for their answer.

"Nothing just...not a big fan of violence." Cosima gave her a grim smile as Delphine helped herget back onto the back of the white horse.

"Figures." Xena rolled her eyes, kicking her horse to take the lead again. "Damn peace lovers."

"So...Judging from your reaction, I'm going to take it as there isn't a lot of fighting going on in thefuture?" Gabrielle asked as they started walking.

Cosima scrunched her nose, holding onto the saddle-horn tightly since Delphine held the horsesreins. "Well...I mean there's fighting, but like, maybe it's just not as prevalent? There are like warsand stuff...street scuffles I guess. Not a lot of swords and staff fights." She scratched her jaw."Delphine and I work in a lab...erm." At the woman's confused look, she tried to clarify. "I'm a

student, to become a doctor. Delphine is a doctor."

"Oh! A healer! That's great! Xena is a really great healer too." Her face revealed her excitement."This one time she helped my friend give birth to a centaur." Gabrielle smiled as her staff tappedagainst the ground with each step. "That was pretty amazing. She cut right in there and just pulledhim out then sewed her back up."

Cosima did a double take. "A centaur? Like a half horse half man? Those are real?"

"Why would you think they weren't..." Gabrielle paused, looking at them. "Are there no centaursin the future?"

Delphine grimaced. "I think this is one of the things we are not supposed to talk about."

Gabrielle gave them a disheartened look. "Yeah." She shook her head and moved away to catchup with the warrior.

"I guess I let that cat out of the bag." Cosima frowned, looking down at Delphine. "This is sounreal."

"Tell me about it." Delphine shook her head. "How are you feeling?"

"Super glad I put my underwear back on." Cosima laughed, wiggling in the saddle. "Hey I sawXena was wearing these shorts things under her skirt...do you think Gabrielle is wearing anythingunder that skirt? I mean...did they have underwear back in these days?"

"She's not wearing anything under there." Delphine blurted out before she gave her a guilty look.

"What?" Cosima's head whipped around. "And how do you know that?"

Delphine laughed nervously. "It's not like I was trying to look. During the fight she did this kickand her skirt flew up and...yeah she's not wearing any underwear under there."

There was a silence between them as they walked that lasted what seemed like forever beforeCosima finally spoke. "Do you think she's attractive?"

"WHAT?" Delphine gave her an incredulous look.

Cosima shrugged. "I mean... she's cute which you're totally attracted to... and it's not like we'retogether or anything. You could always see if she wants a quickie with someone from the future."

Delphine narrowed her eyes at the brunette. "I have no intention on having a 'quickie' with eitherof them. They don't exactly practice safe sex these days, and I'm sure her tall girlfriend in allleather with a big sword would highly object."

"So you've thought this through apparently." Cosima gave her a suspicious look.

"I have not." Delphine crossed her arms over her chest, her features covered with an indignantlook. "You are being ridiculous."

Cosima laughed. "You and I don't exactly practice safe sex either." That earned her a glare fromthe walking woman. The blonde was looking very much like a petulant child. God she loved herso much, it was beyond rational. "Hey."

Delphine ignored her, continuing to walk with a scowl.

"Hey." Rolling her eyes, Cosima unhooked her boot from her stirrup and kicked the woman on

"Hey." Rolling her eyes, Cosima unhooked her boot from her stirrup and kicked the woman onthe shoulder, a little harder than she intended, making the blonde stumble slightly. "Oh my god I'mso so sorry."

"Did you just kick me?" Delphine gave her a furious look.

"I didn't mean to kick you so hard." Cosima leaned down, trying to get down closer to Delphine'slevel.

"But you meant to kick me!"

"I meant to...nudge you?" Cosima tried to give her a sheepish look. "I was trying to get yourattention."

Delphine growled. "Well? What do you want?"

Cosima smiled softly. "I love you."

With an exasperated sigh, Delphine uncrossed her arms. "I love you too." She commentedbegrudgingly.

Getting it on in the Inn

Chapter Notes

Ok so I'm going to warn you, I'm so fucking agravated about canon that I can't evenproofread this so there's probably a shit ton of typos and mistakes but...it's either Ipost this or dump it...

"Did Aphrodite give you any dinars?

Cosima looked up from her seat on the ground, having been picking at the laces of her boots whileeveryone finished up the lunch of fruit and... beef jerky? She didn't want to think too much aboutit. "Any what?"

"Dinars." Gabrielle reached into a pocket that was somewhere hidden on the inner side of her beltor skirt or whatever. "These. They're used to pay for things."

"Oh! Money!" Cosima hopped up and walked over to the horse, digging through one of the bagsthat was filled with random tools and tidbits she couldn't identify. "I think..." Her tongue stuck outfrom between her teeth as she pulled out a bag that was heavy with pieces of metal she could hearclinking. "Um..." She looked in the bag and pulled out what looked like some coins. "I don'tknow what the currency value is..." She wrinkled her nose.

Gabrielle's eyes doubled at the amount of money. "Ok... put that away. I guess that answers thatquestion." She shook her head. "So Xena wants to stay in a town tonight. Usually a room costsaround 2 dinars if I work some bartering magic. You guys alright with that?"

"Like... will there be a bed?" Cosima perked up. "Was this an option before? Why didn't we dothat last night?"

"Well, this is the first town along the way. It's kind of no man's land out here." Gabrielleshrugged. "I'll let Xena know. We should be there in a candle mark once we get moving."

Her brows furrowing, Cosima just nodded. "Ok..." As the blonde left, Cosima moved over towhere Delphine was inspecting a piece of meat. "Hey, D." She knelt down beside her. "What thehell is a candle mark?"

As it turned out, a candle mark was roughly an hour, according to Delphine's wristwatch. Thetown was filthy and Cosima stuck close to Delphine and the horse, having dismounted to walkthrough the dirt streets. She watched in interest as Gabrielle haggled with the old woman behindthe bar, managing two rooms and dinner for what she guessed was a reasonable price consideringthe blonde warrior's grin.

The room was... not the cleanest thing but considering they had slept on the ground the nightbefore, Cosima wasn't complaining.

Delphine dropped the saddlebags on the ground with a grunt. "Well it is not the Marriot." Shelooked at the bed and cringed, not sure if the bedding had ever been changed in the entire durationof the inn being in business.

Cosima knelt down, removing their travel blankets from the supplies. "Believe it or not, I've beenin worse." She didn't bother stripping the blankets off, not sure if the mattress, if it could be calledthat, were any better. "We'll make due." She unrolled the blanket with a flick of her wrists,spreading it across the surface.

Looking at the pitcher of water and the large cracked bowl, Delphine sighed. "I'm guessing therearen't any showers here." She commented, pouring the water into the bowl and kneeling toretrieve some of the supplies from the bags. When she stood she nearly collided with a grinningbrunette. "Hello."

"Hi." Cosima took the washcloths from her and slipped her hand into Delphine's. Dropping one ofthe rags into the water she gestured for Delphine to remove her shirt. "You are starting to get asunburn."

Delphine winced as the cold damp cloth was pressed against her cheeks, gently removing thetravel dust from her skin. She closed her eyes against the rough feeling, her hands settling on thebrunette's waist. "Cosima..." Her tone had a slight warning to it. She let her gaze fall on thebrunette who was smirking just slightly. She was beautiful, but Delphine was afraid to cross thatline, that all that Cosima was would swallow her whole and she wouldn't be able to pull awaywhen she needed to.

Blowing out a stream of air, Cosima wrinkled her nose. "I miss you." Rinsing the rag, shecontinued to wipe down the long neck. "It's been way too long since I've felt your hands." Shepicked up one of the woman's hands, cleaning it with the rag. "Even before you leaving... I wassick..." She sighed softly, feeling the tickle in the back of her throat at just the thought. "I missyou." She was repeating herself, but she didn't care.

"You think I don't know how long it's been?" Delphine thought back to that night, back in herDYAD apartment, after marijuana and confessions of love led to a night of whisperedreassurances and agonizingly slow hands. But as she dwelled on the past, her mind alsoremembered the stack of black and white photos. Cosima in Bobby's bar, sitting across from thesmall form of a girl. Photos through the window of a kiss. It brought everything back. "Cosima Ican't." She closed her eyes as she felt the sting of tears. It was one thing to toy around, flutteredkisses and caresses of fingertips. It was another thing to let her in again. There was no doubt of thelove they felt. No doubt that Cosima loved her or that she loved Cosima. So far removed from theworld they lived in, it was easy to put it all aside and just remember what it was like to be a coupleagain... but this. She couldn't let the brunette in. She couldn't be reminded of what it was like totouch and taste her.

"Why?" Cosima's voice broke. "Can't we just...forget everything that happened? The break?DYAD? It's all bullshit, Delphine. Just think about me and you. Forget everything else." Shecupped the blonde's face. When light hazel eyes opened to look at her, she saw an ocean ofsadness.

"Forget about Shay?"

It was like a slap in the face. She hadn't told Delphine about that. She hadn't mentioned the date,but it wasn't a surprise that the blonde was spying. That is what she did after all. "That's not fair.You dumped me remember?" She dropped her hand, stepping away. "You don't have the right tojudge me."

Delphine shook her head. "You are absolutely right. I did break up with you. I broke up with youto keep you and your sisters safe like I promised and you didn't hold out very long until you foundthe next blonde to take back to Felix's." Delphine crossed her arms over her chest, now feeling theanger welling up. "Seriously Cosima. Do you think I like hearing about it? And through a dating

app? Seriously Cosima?"

"We were on a break!" Cosima's hands came up to her forehead. "What was I supposed to do?You just left me when I was dying and I was hurting! Suddenly I found myself getting better and Iwas still dying inside and I would have done anything to just erase that." Shaking her head, shewas pacing. "You didn't say you were coming back. You didn't say wait for you. I told you Iloved you and you didn't say it back!" Cosima crossed her arms over her chest, not unlikeDelphine, still pacing. "So yeah, I went on a date, yeah she kissed me, but all I could think of wasyou. All I could think was that her lips weren't as soft as yours, that she didn't smell as sweet asyour stupid expensive perfume and your stupid cigarettes you were supposed to be quitting. Shesmelled like lavender and vanilla and she smelled fucking fantastic and all I wanted was to breathein the smell of stale cigarettes."

The next thing Cosima knew, her lips were captured in a hungry kiss. It took the barest of time forher mind to catch up as she tangled her fingers in blonde curls, feeling fingers tearing at the stringsholding her top closed. "Fuck Delphine." She growled as the kiss broke off, travelling down herthroat.

Delphine's fingers were quick to strip the top from the brunette, tossing it to the side, her mouthlatching on to one of the newly revealed nipples, her tongue circling the stiff peak as her handcame up to tease the other so it wouldn't feel neglected. She was trying to fight through the stormof emotions, her anger and lust fighting for dominance as she roughly removed the woman'spanties. "Did you let her do this?" Delphine whispered before capturing the woman's lips again,burying her fingers into the slick entrance. Her lips muffled the woman's moan as she began aslow thrusting of her hand. When she broke off the kiss, she bumped her nose against Cosima's."Did she make you cry out like I can?"

Shaking her head, Cosima whimpered. "No." She pulled the blonde down and returned the kiss,her nails digging into the smooth shoulders. "Only you." She whispered, knowing it was what thedoctor needed, wrapping her legs around the woman's hips as she rolled her hips into each thrust.Delphine knew her, knew her body. They'd spent hours just memorizing every inch of each other,learning what would coax tremors and moans. She had taught the blonde how to love her and thewoman was a fast study. "Je t'aime." She whispered against soft lips.

The words sent a thrill down Delphine's back. She felt her need increasing as she pressed herfingers deeper, wanting nothing more than to hear those tiny pants and moans as they movedtogether. Their bodies fit together perfectly, their movements synchronized with practiced ease.Breaking off the kiss, she buried her face in the the brunette's neck, feeling teeth latch onto hershoulder, nails raking over her back. "Je t'aime, Cosima. Je t'aime." She whispered, feeling thewoman's body begin to tremble. Each breath was a moan, a whimper, a pant. Each thrust, shefound more resistance, muscles clenching around the digits. With a smirk, she curled her fingers,her teeth capturing an earlobe before whispering, "I love you, Cosima." It was all Cosima needed,muscles clamping down and her back arching into Delphine. Her teeth bit down on the soft spotbetween Delphine's neck and shoulder, muffling a scream that threatened to alert the entire inn.

Delphine hissed softly at the pain but continued to press into her, her pace slowing down to easethe woman back to Earth. As she felt the brunette go limp, she moved her neck away from theattacking mouth, chuckling softly as legs slipped from her hips bonelessly. "You are so beautiful,ma cherie." She pressed her lips to Cosima's, getting a lazy kiss in return.

"Mmm, dude you are way too good at that." Cosima's voice was scratchy as she tried to catch herbreath. Shifting slightly, she hissed at the feel of the fingers still present. "Um..." She found an evillook on the blonde's face just a bare second before the fingers pressed into her again. "Gah..." Herhead fell back against the mattress, her body still extremely sensitive. "Delphine..." She was cut

off with another kiss, her lips already bruised.

It wasn't enough, Delphine decided as she began kissing her way down the body glistening withsweat. She needed more. She needed to reclaim her territory, to remind the brunette who shebelonged with. As she made her way down the woman's body, she felt muscles gaining strengthagain, fingers running through her hair and urging her lower. As she settled between spreadthighs, she slipped her fingers out, the brunette's disappointed whine turned into a moan asDelphine replaced the digits with her tongue.

"Holy shit." Cosima groaned, her back arching as her thighs were placed over the woman'sshoulders, arms arms holding her in place while the hot tongue thrust into her. It wasn't deep but itwas driving her crazy and she needed more. "God, Delphine. What the fuck..." She swore shecould hear a chuckle against her core.

When she felt her tongue straining, Delphine instead licked her way up to the swollen clit, circlingthe tip before flicking her tongue against it. Nails bit into her scalp and she took it as a sign tocontinue, switching between the bundle of nerves and returning to dip her tongue into the heateddepths.

Cosima whimpered as she attempted to pull the woman closer. The blonde was teasing her,bringing her close to the edge before changing tactics. She needed release and she knew Delphinewas the only one who could give it to her. She craved the woman's touch, lived for it. She woulddie for it. "Please." She begged, attempting to thrust her hips forward, but the arms around herthighs held her in place. "Delphine...please." She begged.

Delphine smirked mentally before dragging the length of her tongue along the woman's clit,releasing one thigh to press two fingers into her.

"Fuck." Cosima whimpered, jolt after jolt of white hot pleasure radiating from her core as thetongue moved mercilessly against her. She felt herself falling, pushed over the edge andplummeting into pure ecstasy. She wanted to scream but no sound passed her lips, her bodyshuttering uncontrollably. She was crying. She'd always made fun of Delphine, but she couldn'tstop the tears from falling as her body fell to the bed in a lump, unable to move any of her limbs.

Finally Delphine crawled up the woman's body, finding flowing tears and a silently sobbingbrunette. She pressed her lips to the woman's, a gentle exploration that ended with her nudgingCosima's nose with her own. "You know I'll never give up on you, right? You'll always be mine."

Cosima just nodded, finally moving her arms to wrap around the blonde's shoulders. "I'm sorry,Delphine. Please believe me."

Delphine smiled as she sunk into the woman's embrace, satisfied her point had been made.

A Woman's Place

Chapter Notes

Sorry so long for the update. There will be one more chapter after this. This wasalways meant to be a short piece.

"Do you feel like we should be helping?" Cosima was playing with a stalk of grass, her legsfolded under her as the waited outside the temple. Her dreads had been tucked up into a bun and asmile played at the corner of her lips.

"They said it shouldn't be too difficult." Delphine had a small stick in her hand that she was usingto poke at the ground. She was utterly bored. After riding double for most of the day, they hadfinally come up to the large temple, bowls of oil burning at the entrance of the building. Xena andGabrielle had told them to wait outside as they retrieved the mirror. It was supposed to be easy, soshe and Cosima had taken a seat in the grass. She couldn't help but smile. She still had thememory of Cosima's lips traveling down her throat and body, leaving a fire in it's wake. It had feltso good to be touched by hands other than her own again, to feel the love she'd been missing fromher life since she'd broken up with the brunette.

"You're being creepy." Cosima's voice interrupted her thoughts.

Delphine looked up to see Cosima giving her a knowing smile. "Sorry." But the smile never lefther face. She knew that this couldn't last. Topside and DYAD were still a major threat. There wasstill a cure that needed to be found. There were Cosima's sisters. There was so much going on andshe knew that as soon as they got back, they would have to go back to life as usual. As she lookedat Cosima who had a smile of her own, she knew things wouldn't be the same. Cosima knew whyshe had done what she had. They had spent the night exchanging touches and kisses, filling the in-betweens with discussions.

It would be different when they got back. They would be different. Cosima would wait for herthis time. The brunette's heart had mended through loving caresses and whispered confessions oflove and Delphine was confident they would have a future together.

They were going to be ok. They just had to get through the garbage that was everything aroundthem, but she was secure in the knowledge that out of all that, she and Cosima were going tosurvive. They were going to make it.

"Well. Looks like it's my lucky day." A voice came from behind them.

Delphine and Cosima stood up in sync, quickly turning to find a man dressed in filthy leather, skinstained by sweat and dirt. They took a few steps back only to have him step closer, Delphinefinally finding her voice. "What do you want?"

"I'll take your horses and all your dinars." The man stood there, hand resting on the pommel of thesword tucked into his belt.

"Whoa. Be cool man." Not one to argue with a guy with a weapon, Cosima put her hands up,both she and Delphine stepping away from the horse.

"I like it when a woman knows her place." The man gave them a leering smile, revealingblackened teeth. "Now which one of you is going to show me what else a woman is good for?Maybe both of you eh?"

The very thought was repulsing and Cosima swallowed audibly, fear leaving a lump in her throat.Xena and Gabrielle were just inside the temple, but they didn't have any weapons to defendthemselves, even if there were two of them. Neither of them were trained for any sort of physicalcombat. Sensing there was no way they could avoid it, Cosima made a decision. "XENA!GABRIELLE! HELP!" Cosima yelled at the top of her lungs, praying that their companionscould hear them in the temple.

"You stupid bitch." The man's face contorted in anger. In a move faster than you would think,considering his dilapidated garbs, his fist came down, impacting her cheek and knocking theglasses from her face. With a growl, he unsheathed his sword, his arm drawing back.

"Fuck!" Cosima yelled as her hand came up to her cheek, blinking at the stars that speckled herblurred surroundings.

"Cosima!" Delphine pushed the brunette out of danger's way, feeling the world slowing downsuddenly. Seconds became minutes as she watched Cosima falling to the ground. She could seeXena and Gabrielle running out of the temple. She could see the man coming at her, sword raised.

There was the sound of a blade slicing through the air and the man was falling sideways, bloodspurting over Delphine's chest. She didn't care. Looking down, she saw the sword buried in herchest. It was strange, how little pain she felt. She struggled to breathe and felt herself fall to herknees, vaguely aware of the sound of running footsteps while she felt a familiar touch on her face.

"Delphine!"

The voice was so far away, barely heard over the pounding of her heart in her ears. She wasfinding it harder to breathe and as she was directed to straighten her body on the ground, she feltthe cool touch of the grass against her back. She made a mental note of the faces closest to her, butshe couldn't focus on anything nearby. Oddly enough, her eyes tracked a falcon, soaringmajestically through the air, circling the area as if inspecting the scene. She could see the airpassing through the feathers of the creature's wings and she wished she'd spent a little more timestudying physics in college, wondering if she'd be able to grasp the mechanics of flight simplerthan she could now. It was strange that the sound of Cosima's voice calling her name was muffled,despite being able to feel the warm caress of the brunette's breath on her cheek, but she could hearthe call of the bird so clearly as it circled the scene once more before it moved on to quieterhunting grounds. Tears left wet trails her skin, maybe her own, maybe Cosima's, but they slippeddown the side of her face seconds before excruciating pain erupted through her chest.

Blood on the Ground

Chapter Notes

Alright. Sorry I kind of left you guys hanging for so long. This is the last part of thestory.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

"No no no no." Cosima brushed blonde curls back. "Baby, open your eyes!" Cosima held thewoman's head in her lap, patting the pale cheek. She looked at Xena who had just pulled thesword from Delphine's chest and was working on clearing the blood. "How bad is it?"

Setting the sword aside, Xena cut the blonde's shirt open, revealing the skin that was getting palerwith every second. "Her lung was punctured." She accepted the waterskin from Gabrielle, tryingto clear the wound but blood kept pouring out.

"Please tell me you can fix this. God it's so much blood." Cosima whispered. She panicked asblood poured down the woman's shoulder and began to pool in the dirt. "Please don't leave me,Delphine. Please please please." She cleared the blood that was lining the corner of the woman'smouth, her own tears dropping on the woman's pale skin. "I love you so much please don't die."

It was more blood than should be coming out and Xena's expression filled with dread. "Gabrielle,get her here now" She was pressing a cloth bandage to the wound but the material became soakedwith blood quickly.

Gabrielle nodded. "Aphrodite!" She was looking over Xena's shoulder then up to Cosima whohad tears slipping down her cheek as she tried to wake the blonde. "Aphrodite get down here!"

"Baby, I need you to wake up." Cosima pressed her lips to the woman's temple. "You have tostay conscious."

Xena gave Gabrielle a worried look, blood seeping out from between her fingers, soaking theremains of the white shirt, spilling over pale skin.

"APHRODITE!"

There was a burst of pink sparks. "What in the world..." The bikini clad blonde materialized,taking in the scene before her. "I left them alone with you guys for a few days. What the Hades,Xena?"

"Heal now, yell later." Xena snapped at the goddess.

"Oh, yeah totally." Aphrodite slapped Xena's hands away. "Ew this is so not sanitary." Aphroditecommented, placing her hands on the wound.

Cosima's brows furrowed as she took in the scene, seeing the woman's hands glowing a brightpink before there was a flash and she pulled her hands away, revealing pale skin completelysmooth. "Holy watershed."

"You got that right, Cupcake." Aphrodite looked at her hands with a grimace. "Totally icky."

Snapping her fingers, the blood shook off in a flash of sparkles. "There we go." Looking down atDelphine, she snapped her fingers again the torn and bloody shirt was replaced with a cleaner in-tact shirt. "Wicked." She grinned at the three women. "Hello! Usually this is the part where youguys shower me with appreciation. Ungrateful much? I'm saving lives here!"

"Thank you so much, Aphrodite." Gabrielle spoke quickly.

"Delphine?" Cosima was running her hand through the blonde curls, seeing the color returning tothe woman's cheeks. Light hazel eyes blinked open slowly and Cosima sobbed in relief. "Oh mygod."

"Cosima?" Delphine coughed, feeling a pulling in her chest, noticing that she was laying on theground. Her brow furrowed as she took a minute as her memory came back, her hand moving upto pull at the laces of her shirt, looking at her skin. Where the sword had entered and Aphroditehad healed, there was now a heart-shaped mark. "What..."

Cosima cut her off with a kiss, her hands cupping the soft cheeks.

Xena wiped her own hands off, having not been lucky enough to get the blood magically zappedoff of them. "Thank you Aphrodite. Umm... Gabrielle do you have that..."

Gabrielle pulled the mirror from her side bag. "You needed this?" She handed it to the goddess.

"Oh sweet." Aphrodite accepted it. "I'll be right back."

Cosima didn't even register the woman disappearing, still peppering Delphine's lips. "I can'tbelieve you're ok." She laughed through her tears. "Don't you ever get impaled for me again."

Delphine smiled, her hand coming up to caress the woman's cheek. "I could never let anythinghappen to you. It was a very selfish choice. I can't imagine life without you." She groaned aspushed herself up off the ground with Cosima's help. "Shit, that hurt."

"It hurts every time." Xena commented with a wry smile. "Well glad you guys are Aphrodite'sfavorites cause that sword severed an artery and I wouldn't have been able to stop the bleeding."

"Xena!" Gabrielle slapped the warrior on the arm. "Don't mind her. We're constantly pullingarrows and knives out of her."

Cosima couldn't stop herself, she reached up to tuck blonde hair behind Delphine's ear, caressingher jaw. "Thank god, you're ok." She pulled Delphine down, their foreheads touching. "I was soworried." She sniffled. "Please promise me you won't do that again. I can't lose you."

"I can't make that promise." Delphine smiled, bumping her nose against Cosima's before capturingher lips in a kiss. "I would sacrifice everything for you." She wrapped her arm around thebrunette's waist, pulling their bodies together as she lost herself in the soft embrace of their lips.

"I swear to Zeus all they ever do is kiss." Xena commented, hands on her hips.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "Are you jealous?" Wrinkling her nose in a grin, she grabbed the frontof the taller woman's leathers, pulling her down to place a quick kiss on her lips.

Xena pulled away, giving her an outraged look before bumping the blonde away with her hip."Shrimp."

There was another burst of sparks as Aphrodite appeared. "Ok so I...awww they're so cute." Shecommented as she watched Delphine and Cosima exchanging soft kisses.

"They are worse than your accolites." Xena had crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well, they are mine, and I don't have very many of them in their time, so I can't let anythinghappen to them." Aphrodite grinned. "You two...don't need any help." She winked beforeclapping her hands. "Alright you two. Let's get you back to your own bed."

Clearing her throat, Cosima stepped back, licking her lips with a chuckle. "Um... we weren't inbed when we left."

The mirror appearing in her hand, Aphrodite laughed. "Let's get you back to your own bed." Sherepeated with a wrinkled nose, the mirror beginning to spin in her hand. "Say goodbye to the bigbad warriors."

Cosima leaned back against Delphine, an arm slipping around her waist. "Thank you... so much."She spoke softly, her eyes still rimmed with tears.

"Yes, thank you."

Xena gave them an absentminded wave but Gabrielle waved frantically. "Good luck in the future!Don't forget us!"

"Alright you two, look at the birdie!" Aphrodite held the mirror out as light began to emanate fromthe surface.

Cosima was surprised to see Delphine's bedroom as the light grew brighter, feeling a tug thatstarted from inside herself. Delphine's arm tightened around her waist just before the worldseemed to drop out of nowhere.

Xena and Gabrielle both blocked their eyes as there was a huge flash of light. When they openedtheir eyes again, the pair was gone and the mirror's rotation began to slow. Gabrielle's browsfurrowed. "Did...did it work?"

Aphrodite bit her bottom lip and shrugged. "I hope so. I'm sure I got everything right." Turning toface the two, she tossed the mirror at Xena, the warrior catching it easily. "Return that to thetemple, won't you tall, dark, and deadly?"

With a heavy sigh, Xena let her head fall forward in defeat. "Gabrielle did you grab those dinarsfrom them?"

Gabrielle's pursed her lips. "Um... that probably would have been a good idea, huh?"

With a laugh, Aphrodite tossed a small bag of coins at them before setting her hands on the whitehorse and they disappeared together.

The hot water poured down, the room filled with steam. Delphine smiled against soft lips as handsslid up her side, having forgotten the loofa and soap long ago.

Cosima whimpered, her back against the cold tiles of the shower, a thigh pressed against her coreas she moved her fingers up to tangle in blonde hair. As lips broke off from her own and began tomove down her neck, she sighed softly. "Tell me again." It came out a loud groan but it was fine,no one was around to hear.

"Je t'aime, Cosima." Delphine whispered against her slick skin.

Cosima closed her eyes in delight, the French words washing over her like smooth silk. Just asAphrodite had promised, they had appeared back in the blonde's apartment, almost no time havingpassed at all, their clothes and phones piled on the ground at their feet. It was an agreement thatthe first thing they needed to do was take a shower. There hadn't been any discussion on thematter. She had slipped her hand into Delphine's, leading her towards the bathroom, stripping offtheir clothes. She felt so physically and emotionally drained, but this was just what she needed.She didn't care about any of the bullshit that was Leda, Castor, Dyad, Shay. None of it mattered asthe fingers pressed into her, teeth nibbling along her shoulder. "Shit." She moaned as the fingertipspressed deeper into her.

Delphine chuckled at the woman's moan, leaning back to look into eyes dark with desire. "Do youlove me?"

"Without a doubt." Cosima whispered, pulling the blonde down to her, their lips meeting in a slowand teasing exploration, neither seeing the flash of pink sparks as a very satisfied goddessdisappeared.

Chapter End Notes

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